Industry news
FBD: Reliance Retail to expand its stores, looking to strategic alliances
Last updated: 19 November 2009
by Sabyasachi Samajdar, FoodBizDaily.com Bureau Chief – New Delhi
Reliance Retail Limited, the largest retail player in India, has said yesterday that the company is looking to take its food-to-fashion chains into newer Indian cities as well forge new strategic alliances.
"I am pleased to report that we have done extraordinarily well, despite the tough economic conditions. Having achieved critical scale, Reliance Retail is now working on expanding its coverage. This expansion would encompass new cities, new markets and new strategic alliances," Mr. Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited, told shareholders at the company's 35th annual general Meeting yesterday.
Reliance Retail would focus on continuously innovating to enrich the shopping experience, through customized offers, private labels and 'value-for- money' merchandise, Mr. Ambani said.
"We are developing an ecosystem, which will strengthen our offering, while bringing wealth to our stakeholders, primarily marginal farmers, small transporters and vendors," Ambani said.
"Our efforts would be on expanding and reinforcing the supply chain and logistics. This services platform would be a formidable base for value creation," Mr. Ambani said.
"We have focused on doing millions of small things well–-every single time and in every single store. This short breather that we have taken from breakneck expansion has been time well spent, because we have gained a robust foundation on which to build a rapid scale-up in the future," Mr. Ambani added.
Currently, Reliance Retail serves over 5 million customers in 86 cities across 14 states. The fashion-food-gadgets chain operates nearly 1000 stores. Reliance Retail currently works with nearly 100000 farmer families across 4000 villages in India. This direct linkage with the farmers makes the company one of the largest food retailers in the country. The retailer is also working toward creating a services platform for Reliance by building an overarching supply chain infrastructure.
